These are highly specific to this genus of tree (other species of the genus Bourreria occur in hardwood hammocks on the Keys but I’ve never identified one, so I don’t know if it’s specific to the species or not). While in this particular hammock every single tree has this fungus on it, I have seen other hammocks with few or none present. I have never seen it on another tree (and I’ve looked hard!) I’ve watched this particular grove for several years, and apparently the fungus does little harm to the trees.

In fact, since the bare trunks of all the tropical hardwood trees in the Keys look virtually the same, the presence of this fungus is actually a very useful diagnostic character! The types of lichens are similarly diagnostic for several other species — a strong argument for encouraging interdisciplinary study in biology!

Based on the tough dry corky texture and the perennial growth habit, I’m placing it in Phellinus. As this is clearly a well-defined species, I’m trying out a feature of this website that apparently has not been used before(?), and coining a quoted name for it until I can find the proper one. How fun!

The quoted names are normally used for unpublished provisional names. Other examples include, Boletus “rexvernus”, Cantharellus “californicus”, Leucoagaricus “rubrofolia”, and Stropharia “alboambigua”. Your welcome to use them in the way you did, although the regular convention is to make them a plausible latin name. Unfortunately the definition of plausible is not simple to explain.